Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?

What each one is for

A Google Business Profile is the listing that shows on Google Maps and in the box of local businesses when someone searches “plumber Henderson” or “café near me”. It holds your name, category, address or service area, hours, phone, photos, and reviews. You set it up in your Google account, and it costs nothing.

A website is your own page on the internet. You decide what it says, how it's laid out, and what a visitor can do there — call, send a quote request, book, read a menu. Google doesn't control it, and it doesn't disappear if Google changes how Maps looks.

The profile is how people find you nearby. The website is where they decide whether to hire you. That's the simplest way to think about it.

What a profile can do on its own

Quite a lot. A customer can find you on Maps, see your hours, read your reviews, look at photos, tap to call, and get directions — all without a website. For a business that lives on walk-ins and phone calls, a well-kept profile does most of the work.

Plenty of businesses start with only a profile: a new mobile barber, a sparky in their first month, a coffee cart. That's sensible. Set up the profile first, because it's free and quick, and get the website when you're ready. The Business Profile setup guide walks through it step by step.

What a profile can't do

A profile description is limited to 750 characters. That's a few sentences, not a list of the twelve services you offer with the suburbs and the way you price each one. Customers comparing three plumbers want more than a star rating before they send a job.

You don't control the layout or the order things appear in, and Google changes it often. Anyone can suggest an edit to your profile, and Google sometimes accepts suggestions from strangers. Reviews sit next to your details whether you like them or not. None of that is a reason to skip a profile. It's a reason not to rely on it alone.

A profile also can't take a proper enquiry. There's no quote form with job type, suburb, and a photo of the leak. Customers can call, or use whatever messaging Google offers at the time. Calls you miss on the tools are jobs that go to the next name on the list.

And the profile isn't yours in the way a website is. Google built free websites from Business Profiles for a few years and shut them down in 2024; those addresses stopped working. If your only presence is on someone else's platform, their changes become your problem.

How the two help each other in search

Local rankings on Maps come down to three things Google has described for years: how relevant the profile is to the search, how close the business is to the searcher, and how prominent the business is. You can't move your premises. You can make the profile more relevant and more trusted.

A website helps both. When your profile links to a page that names the services you do and the suburbs you cover, Google has more evidence that you're relevant to “heat pump install Albany”. When the name, address, and phone on the website match the profile exactly, it's one consistent business rather than two that might be different. A mismatch — a different phone on the site, an old address — is one of the most common problems we see.

A website can also rank on its own, in the ordinary results under the map. A guide like “what does a switchboard upgrade cost” or a page for each service can bring in people who never saw your profile. A profile can only show in the map results.

When a profile alone is enough

If customers already know what you do and just need to find you — a dairy, a takeaway with a simple menu, a business with more work than it can take — a profile with good photos, correct hours, and real reviews may be all you need for now. Spend the effort on keeping it accurate and asking for reviews.

It's also fine as a first step while you work out what the business is. A new business that's still deciding its services and suburbs will write a better website in three months than today. Start the profile, collect a few reviews, and note the questions customers ask on the phone. Those questions become the website.

When you need a website as well

You need a website when customers compare before they hire. Trades, salons, builders, and anyone quoting a job over a few hundred dollars fall in this group. People look at the profile, then click through to see the work, the services, and whether you cover their area. If there's nothing to click, they click the competitor who has something.

You also need one when you want enquiries in a particular shape: a quote form that asks the right questions, a booking link for a salon, a menu a café can update. And you need one if you want to run Google Ads — an ad has to send people somewhere, and a profile is a weak landing page for a paid click.

What to put on the website that the profile can't hold

Write down the questions customers ask you on the phone. Those are the website's job. For a tradie that's usually: do you cover my suburb, roughly what does this cost, how soon can you come, and are you registered. For a café it's: are you open now, is there a gluten-free option, can I book for eight. For a salon it's: what does a cut and colour cost, who's the stylist, and how do I book.

Each answer gets a line or a section on the site. A list of suburbs, not a region. A price or a “from” price where you can give one. Your registration number if you have one. The menu as text, not a PDF. Your price list and a booking link. None of it fits in a 750-character description, and all of it is what a customer checks before they choose you over the next listing.

Photos belong in both places. Put your best few on the profile, and the fuller set — before and after, the room, the team — on the website, where you choose the order. Use real photos of your own work in both. A customer who sees the same job photo on Maps and on your site knows it's genuine.

Keep the answers short. A customer on a phone wants the line that answers their question, not three paragraphs about your values. If an answer takes more than a few sentences, it's probably a page of its own on a Growth site.

Making them match

Use the same business name on both, exactly. Use the same phone number, the one you answer. If customers visit you, use the same address in the same format. If you go to customers, hide your address on the profile, list the areas you serve, and name those same suburbs on the website.

Link the profile to the most relevant page, usually the homepage for a single-location business. Use the same logo and colours on both, so a customer clicking from Maps to the site knows they're in the right place. When something changes — hours, phone, a new service — change it in both places the same day.

What we set up

Starter at $499 is a logo mark and one mobile page with your services, suburbs, quote form, and map, in 5–7 business days. It's the website half; you can set up the profile yourself with our guide. Growth at $1,199 is up to five pages and includes Google Business Profile setup, matched to the site we build, in 10–14 business days. The profile stays in your Google account, with you as the owner.

If you already have a profile and reviews, send us the link with your quote request. We'll build the site to match it rather than the other way round. The tradie checklist covers what the website side should include for trades, and the café and salon pages cover hospitality and booking-led businesses.